To learn you need a certain degree of confidence, not too much and not too little. If you have too little confidence,… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
One wonders whether a generation that demands instant satisfaction of all its needs and instant solution of the world's problems will produce… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
There is need for some kind of make-believe in order to face death unflinchingly. To our real, naked selves there is not… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It needs some intelligence to be truly selfish. The unintelligent can only be self-righteous. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
“We can never really be prepared for that which is wholly new. We have to adjust ourselves, and every radical adjustment is… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The individual's most vital need is to prove his worth, and this usually means an insatiable hunger for action. For it is… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
When our individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need for something apart from us… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A plant needs roots in order to grow. With man it is the other way around: only when he grows does he… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
We need not only a purpose in life to give meaning to our existence but also something to give meaning to our… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is a juvenile notion that a society needs a lofty purpose and a shining vision to achieve much. Both in the… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
We never say so much as when we do not quite know what we want to say. We need few words when… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Faith, enthusiasm, and passionate intensity in general are substitutes for the self-confidence born of experience and the possession of skill. Where there… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Friendship Never explain -- your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe it anyway. A real friend never… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
To be ruthless requires belief that our life on earth is but a brief prelude to an afterlife, or a temporary sacrifice… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The fanatic is not really a stickler to principle. He embraces a cause not primarily because of its justness or holiness but… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new;… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
When grubbing for necessities man is still an animal. He becomes uniquely human when he reaches out for the superfluous and extravagant. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Our originality shows itself most strikingly not in what we wholly originate but in what we do with that which we borrow from others. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The creative mind is the playful mind. Philosophy is the play and dance of ideas. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is also plausible that those movements with the greatest inner contradiction and between profession and practice - that is to say with a… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
“In the alchemy of man's soul almost all noble attributes--courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, etc.--can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others. The impression somehow prevails that the… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A nation without dregs and malcontents, is orderly, decent, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
